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Happy is the one who does this,
    whoever holds fast to it:
Keeping the sabbath without profaning it,
    keeping one’s hand from doing any evil.(A)

Obligations and Promises to Share in the Covenant

[a]The foreigner joined to the Lord should not say,
    “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people”;
Nor should the eunuch say,
    “See, I am a dry tree.”(B)
    For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
    who choose what pleases me,
    and who hold fast to my covenant,(C)
I will give them, in my house
    and within my walls, a monument and a name[b]
Better than sons and daughters;
    an eternal name, which shall not be cut off, will I give them.

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Footnotes

  1. 56:3 Eunuchs had originally been excluded from the community of the Lord; cf. Dt 23:2; Neh 13:1–3; Wis 3:14.
  2. 56:5 A monument and a name: literally in Hebrew, “a hand and a name”; a memorial inscription to prevent oblivion for one who had no children; cf. 2 Sm 18:18; Neh 7:5; 13:14.